12 Building Materials. 



Railway ; the latter would probably be the cheapest source for 

 supplying Melbourne. It is not however to be supposed, with 

 the present price of labor, that granite can be much employed. 

 The cost of putting good work upon this material is something 

 enormous compared with bluestone, and for the same descrip- 

 tion of workmanship the rate is about two and a quarter times 

 more for granite, and comparing the labor on granite with the 

 Bacchus Marsh or Darley freestones the former is four and 

 three-quarter times dearer than the latter. 



The most prominent specimens of granite building in Mel- 

 bourne are the Government offices in William-street, the 

 pilasters of the Town Hall, and portions of Prince's Bridge. 

 The stone for these works was procured from Gelhbrand's 

 Hill, near Broadmeadows. Most of it appears to have been 

 taken from or near the surface, and none of the works men- 

 tioned exhibit the material in a very favorable light — they 

 present a somewhat rusty appearance, and, in some instances, 

 the original color of the stone is altogether destroyed by 

 metallic oxidation. It is not at all impossible that age may 

 have a similar effect upon the more recently erected examples. 

 The plinth of the new Custom House is also of a species of 

 granite, syenite, from Gabo Island (to which the remarks on 

 oxidation will not apply). This material is exceedingly hard, 

 and, on inspection, it will be seen that without expending an 

 extraordinary amount of labor, it is impossible to produce a fair 

 and even surface upon it, and of course more difficult to form 

 channels, sinkings, or mouldings. Most of the colonial granites 

 have a strong resemblance to those obtained from Cornwall, in 

 England, which are distinguished from those of Scotland by 

 having their constituents more unequally divided. The pecu- 

 liar fitness and greater durability of the Scotch granites for 

 building purposes are principally owing to the even and 

 regular distribution of the particles of which these plutonic 

 rocks are composed. 



Clay-slates. — The clay-slate stones of the silurian formation 

 next deserve a brief notice. Samples have been produced from 

 the neighborhood of Tempi estowe and of Kilmore. Both are 

 exceedingly hard, compact, and closely laminated, in color a 

 dark blue, and in general appearance resembling the Caithness 

 flagging imported from Scotland. The extreme toughness of 

 this description of stone and the great difficulty of cutting 

 across the planes of bedding render it unavailable for general 

 building purposes. It is however exceedingly well fitted for 

 street flagging, steps, lintels, or other similar purposes. Applied 



